Overview: There’s been a lot of talk about Apps in the new SharePoint 2013, and a lot of people are still confused about what they are, how they can benefit end users, and why you’d even need them. This presentation will help you understand their value (for both the end-user and the business), how they work in your environment (on premise or in the cloud – Office 365), and will give you a first-hand look at a handful of apps, and how we use them in house (at itgroove) to benefit our own processes. This presentation is meant for business users to understand what Apps mean to them (sorry developers, we’ve already done a dev session on apps).

The next Victoria SharePoint Users Group meeting is:
Thursday, June 13, 2013
with a NEW TIME of:
11:30 am – 2:00pm
and a NEW VENUE of:Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre (Gate 3)
1925 Blanshard Street, Victoria, BC
and a NEW AGENDA format:

Rob Morrison’s BC Ferries SharePoint Implementation presentation offered insight into “the good, the bad, and the ugly” of their SharePoint implementation – placing emphasis on what worked for them and what they would do differently in the future.

After illustrating the key pain points that BC Ferries faced – including a lengthy and complicated document change request approval process in conjunction with 12,000 paper documents stored in a 26 foot wall of cumbersome bindersthat resulted in bottlenecks and difficulty finding information – he highlighted the ways that SharePoint optimized processes, created a culture of communication, and reduced use of paper.

Rob shared a brilliant tip for others seeking a smooth transition – the creation of a “Ten Commandments” document – containing a list of rules for staff to follow – including best practices such as using standard SharePoint templates for root pages and assigning a “leader” to maintain each SharePoint site.

Sean Wallbridge’s The Book of 5’s presentation took a fun, interactive, approach – and solidified his preferred title of “SharePoint Jedi” by emphasizing the fact that although there are SharePoint MVPs (of which he is one), there are no experts, just those who continue to explore the ever evolving ways of the SharePoint force.

Sean shared a series of top five lists he has compiled on all things SharePoint then asked the audience to share their recommendations of what they would include on said lists.